# How To: Rig A Computor Fan For Use In A Coolidor



## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

roughrider said:


> That sounds like a great idea. You should do a write up/tutorial with pics.


Well, NitroSportMan (Ryan) gave me this idea, so I'll take no credit for that end. However, here is what I've done tonight to give my new 70ct Coleman Xtreme coolidor some airflow!

Materials Needed:
1. Antec Tricool 80mm fan: I bought this for ~9 bucks at Best Buy. It has a blue LED light and a 3-speed switch. I'm positive any old fan will do, as long as you can easily distinguish the power-supply wires. It was pretty obvious here, as they were Red and Red/Black. The other cables went to what looks like a small relay and the 3-speed switch.

2. Cell-Phone Charger with 2 wires. I used an old Motorola one!

3. Flat-head Screwdriver (when your fingernails are too short and/or brittle and/or cannot supply ample torque, ask me how I know...)

4. Wire cutter/stripper. I couldn't find any strippers (Trust me, I looked around South Philly for about an hour, must have been too cold for them out.) so I used some pliers with cutter blades.

5. Solder/Crimp-ons/Heat Shrink... Yeaaaaaaah... I said "Rig"... Wire nuts for this job guys.

6. I think maybe something to make risers out of, maybe old cigar-box scraps or other scrap material.

7. Silicone Caulk. Haven't used this yet, not done finalizing my project, but I think there's enough here to give you guys the road map. Up to you which side-streets you take.

Let's get to the fun!

Here's a pic of the fan.









The pic I took is freaking blurry so I decided not to post it. You get the picture =D

Soooo... Take the fan out of the package. Inspect it. Look for the red and black wires. Those are the ones you'll be using violent measures against. 








These are them.

This is a plastic casing that holds terminals, where you would normally connect your power supply from your PC to. I think. I'm a noob with PC's too! Take the Red one, you stay in Wonderland where I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Wait, no nevermind lol (bad Matrix reference). 








Take the Red wire, and that's the positive (?) wire. The Red/Black striped one is the negative (another? here because I really don't know... That's usually what it is with cars, right? LOL!)
Those are the wires that you'll be (splicing?) connecting to the Cell Phone Charger, of the same charges (poles?)

User your fingernail or that screwdriver we talked about to pry open that box. Now, I'm assuming someone far more electrician...ally... .... ummm Someone LESS-ELECTRICALLY-CHALLENGED than I could easily drop a small bead of solder into those terminals to connect the wires from the charger. If not, take pliers or something and yank them out. You could probably cut them too, but for sake of slack, just pry them out.










*Oh shi7 I just realized I probably could have just inserted the charger-wires into them and crimped it on then heat-shrunk.* Someone try that next time.

Moving on.
Strip those two wires. Solder, Crimp, or do what I did and double them over so they fit the gauge wire-nut you have available, twist, and BOOM! You blew your house up. JUST KIDDING! You're done. Plug in your phone charger and test that baby out! _wooooooooo_ yep, that's the sound of victory!...And the fan.


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

Some quick shots of the fan in action:



























The flat wires made squeezing it under the weatherstripping very easy!

I gotta admit, I felt pretty manly when I was done. I yelled, "I AM WINNING SOOO HARD RIGHT NOW!!!!" my girlfriend laughed.

Enjoy guys!


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## fuente~fuente (May 11, 2009)

And now your sticks do not have to worry about being afraid in the dark anymore either!!!

Impressive sir...


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

Hehe thanks bro, what I really want to do is take a rubber stopper, the kind that we used in high-school chemistry to plug a test-tube, drill a hole in it, and use it as a gasket/grommet thing so I can run the fan wires through the drain in the bottom of the cooler, and silicone-caulk the air between the wires and the rubber. I'll get to that after I figure out how to create a spacer to mount the fan on. 

I guess I'll have to do that maybe tomorrow. I'll post pics when done. Thanks for checking this out guys!


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## SmoknTaz (Jun 18, 2008)

Nice work Isaac. I would put the smokes in a temporary home until the silicon cures as some silicon odor is quiet strong. :smoke2:


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## arodgers (Sep 10, 2009)

Thanks for the idea. I've been looking for a 12 volt source to run some fans and the best I could come up with is an old computer power supply. Went looking for an old cell phone charger and found a hundred different 12 volt plugs for random things. I cut/stripped the power cord for an old set of computer speakers and wired it up to some fans I bought a few weeks ago, and bam... perfect. Tomorrow I'll run the lines through a hole in the back of my cooler and get the fans mounted.


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## Mante (Dec 25, 2009)

If you look at the many Vino's on here you will see many that have fans. Any 12V fan will do but as Eyesack used, the puter fans are ideal & usually free. Throw a basic power supply at it available almost anywhere for $10.00 and your away. Even better put a digital timer on it. Good post Eyesack as many people will have no idea of the mechanics involved (or electricians involved??). Nice work.:clap2:


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## tobacmon (May 17, 2007)

Good job Isaac--one thing you could have done is use the Male connector pins (or connector) and not have to use that "HOT" solider iron...I will have to give this a go--Great idea! You can also pick up 120VAC fans (I think) and plug into a wall outlet also. I wonder what the cost difference is on the low voltage and higher voltage fans? Anyone ?????


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

I bet the 120v fans don't have BLUE lights though... LOL! Yeah those'd prolly work, just never seen 'em. Thanks for the support u guys! =D hehehe... blueeeee...


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## tobacmon (May 17, 2007)

I like the light-----if you need to sneak a smoke out so the wife don't see you do it!--LOL


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## Stench (Aug 17, 2009)

Now the Cigar Troll has a cool cave to hang out in replete with mood lighting! LOL


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## ejgarnut (Sep 28, 2009)

Very nice Isaac. Love the blue LED light.


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## jeepthing (Jul 16, 2009)

Very kool Isaac


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## RazzBarlow (Dec 8, 2009)

Good job, Isaac! Although it does kinda look like a t*tty bar inside there!

Marshall


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## Ndimarco (Jan 4, 2009)

Love the light in there! Another thought would be maybe running the cords through the drain if your cooler has one. That way theres no need to drill another hole in it. Also I have had really good success with fish tank caulk/sealant. They make it "clean" (for lack of a better word, it is 830 here) as possible, so it doesn't disturb the fish. I've used it on both of my coolers and find it has no smell as soon as its dry in about a few hours. 

Post more pics when you get it all together!


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## Ndimarco (Jan 4, 2009)

eyesack said:


> Hehe thanks bro, what I really want to do is take a rubber stopper, the kind that we used in high-school chemistry to plug a test-tube, drill a hole in it, and use it as a gasket/grommet thing *so I can run the fan wires through the drain in the bottom of the cooler*, and silicone-caulk the air between the wires and the rubber. I'll get to that after I figure out how to create a spacer to mount the fan on.
> 
> I guess I'll have to do that maybe tomorrow. I'll post pics when done. Thanks for checking this out guys!


Son of a [email protected]#$H, totally didn't see that before I wrote this (again sorry its so early) :rotfl: Either way sounds like you got it figured out man, good luck with it


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## mdrumm (Nov 12, 2009)

way to go eyesack!! the other neat thing with those transformers and computer fans - if you wired it wrong (red-black or whatever) just makes the fan spin the other way. I saw somewhere when I was researching doing my vino conversion where someone mounted the fan on the end of an Oliva box and cut out the opposite side for air flow - the you could move it around the cooler. Another good way to plug the drain is go to wally world and get foam ear plugs for noise.

i am going have to get a better camera to do pics on mine......


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

mdrumm said:


> way to go eyesack!! the other neat thing with those transformers and computer fans - if you wired it wrong (red-black or whatever) just makes the fan spin the other way. I saw somewhere when I was researching doing my vino conversion where someone mounted the fan on the end of an Oliva box and cut out the opposite side for air flow - the you could move it around the cooler. Another good way to plug the drain is go to wally world and get foam ear plugs for noise.
> 
> i am going have to get a better camera to do pics on mine......


Wait, transformers? Auto-stogies ROLLOUT!? lol! What's a transformer? I was actually... It's really funny you brought up the Oliva box, because Teedles hooked me up with a few empty Oliva boxes that I dismantled for use as trays and was thinking about using one with a hole cut out of the middle exactly how you described! I actually think I may use one of the Decadent Dozen boxes I've got from JR since they're smaller and I won't have to sacrifice a tray, but same thing really.


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

RazzBarlow said:


> Good job, Isaac! Although it does kinda look like a t*tty bar inside there!
> 
> Marshall


Or a few rice burners I've seen and possibly owned... :rofl: hahaha! brrrrrrrpppppppp brrrrpppppppppp!


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## Nitrosportman (Oct 26, 2009)

hahaha glad you liked my idea my coolerdor would make you shit your pants complete with led lighting computer fans and peltier cooling and dual inside/outside thermometers just pulled the trigger on my heartfelt beads woohoo should be here in 1-3 days

i love electronics

issac
transformer: Transformer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i.e. cell phone chargers are transformers the convert a.c. to d.c.


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## Nitrosportman (Oct 26, 2009)

arodgers said:


> Thanks for the idea. I've been looking for a 12 volt source to run some fans and the best I could come up with is an old computer power supply. Went looking for an old cell phone charger and found a hundred different 12 volt plugs for random things. I cut/stripped the power cord for an old set of computer speakers and wired it up to some fans I bought a few weeks ago, and bam... perfect. Tomorrow I'll run the lines through a hole in the back of my cooler and get the fans mounted.


hey what kind of power does the vino run off of is it 12 or 24 volts ??? all peltier thermoelectric coolers have a built in transformer you could just piggy back it off the vino's power supply maybe once i get mine i'll do a write up


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

ayayay! lol I'll have to read that when i'm not so tired lol. Yeah bro, thanks so much for the idea and the how-to!


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## mdrumm (Nov 12, 2009)

Nitrosportman said:


> hey what kind of power does the vino run off of is it 12 or 24 volts ??? all peltier thermoelectric coolers have a built in transformer you could just piggy back it off the vino's power supply maybe once i get mine i'll do a write up


Ryan

if you piggy back on the peltier - won't the fan just run when the peltier runs? I did it seperate to plug into a timer to run 30 minutes every three hours - the timer I had didn't have enough steps to do 5 minutes every hour.

I have 2 peltier and heat sinks ordered to convert 2 compressor wine coolers.......

I would like to see pics of your souped up coolidor!!


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## Nitrosportman (Oct 26, 2009)

mdrumm said:


> Ryan
> 
> if you piggy back on the peltier - won't the fan just run when the peltier runs? I did it seperate to plug into a timer to run 30 minutes every three hours - the timer I had didn't have enough steps to do 5 minutes every hour.
> 
> ...


yeah a simple timer would be pretty easy to hook up i don't see why running the fan 24/7 would hurt anything as long as it wasn't blowing directly on anything now if you piggy backed directly off the peltier cooler it would only run when the peltier was cooling

i forgot about this thread i'll get some pics up when i get home i actually have the thermostat disconnected and using it to chill my beer because i just converted an mahogony cabinet with a peltier cooler cabinet and in the process of lining it with spanish cedar now all i need is some cigars lol


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## AMHero (Dec 31, 2009)

Normally I would say to be careful about the heat produced by the lights, but they are leds which are cool<?>, so nevermind.

Good Job!


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## audio1der (Mar 8, 2006)

For the power supply, most dollar stores carry variable voltage converts that you plug into the wall, and have a slide switch to select the output voltage you want. Using this with fan(s) allows you to choose the fan speed, as the input voltage.
Also, a digital timer added to the mix can give almost infinite adjustment to how often the fan comes on. Mine cylce for 5 min. every 2 hours. The power supply is beefy enough to push 3 fans without problem.


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## jamz (Mar 29, 2008)

Pretty cool! Does the voltage/amperage output of the cell charger matter?


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## thebayratt (Jun 4, 2009)

jamz said:


> Pretty cool! Does the voltage/amperage output of the cell charger matter?


 The lower the voltage the slower (less air moved) the fan spins. The amperage is not much of an issue. The fans draw very little amperage (hince the small wire leads). Get an adjustable voltage transformer if you can and that way you can test and see what works for you best.


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## veeref (Sep 7, 2009)

mdrumm said:


> way to go eyesack!! the other neat thing with those transformers and computer fans - if you wired it wrong (red-black or whatever) just makes the fan spin the other way. I saw somewhere when I was researching doing my vino conversion where someone mounted the fan on the end of an Oliva box and cut out the opposite side for air flow - the you could move it around the cooler. Another good way to plug the drain is go to wally world and get foam ear plugs for noise.
> 
> i am going have to get a better camera to do pics on mine......


I had an an old cell-phone charger and fan laying around so I wired one up this way. I don't know if its the fan I used, but when I wired it opposite polarity, my fan didn't work at all. Wired correctly, my fan spun correctly.

Anyways, thanks for the write-up!

Regards,
Randy


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## KetherInMalkuth (Dec 17, 2009)

jamz said:


> Pretty cool! Does the voltage/amperage output of the cell charger matter?


Generally an 80mm computer case fan runs at 12v and around 0.2A. You can generally find the specific Amperage required for a brand name fan if you search the internet, but generics probably won't say, they'll almost always be in the 0.1A to 0.3A range. Newegg.com has a pretty good selection of case fans and they also list the cfm and db for most of the decent ones so you can have an idea how much air it will push and how loud it will be. I'd personally recommend a 120mm fan rather than 80mm if you have the space and if noise is an issue at all, even at the same db the 120mm will sound more quiet because it produces more of a low hum rather than a higher pitched whine like an 80mm.


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## Nitrosportman (Oct 26, 2009)

you can also use an smaller fan (80mm) at a lower voltage say 5-6 volts to reduce noise and space requirements and yes most fans are polarized meaning the leads must be hooked up correctly


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## nutman (Jan 2, 2010)

What is the purpose of the fan? If you don't have an intake/exhaust vent (depending on which way the fan is turning) you're not going to move any air inside the coolidor.


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

You're still moving air around inside the cooler, Mike. I think from what I've read, the point is that moist air is heavier than dry air, so it serves as a convection oven, but with moisture instead of heat in that it circulates the moist air in order to humidify your cigars more uniformly. Hope that helps a little. I do understand what you're getting at though, but it's not a vacuum inside the cooler since air DOES exist in there. You're just moving the air around.


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## mdrumm (Nov 12, 2009)

issac- what are you studying in college? That was way intelligent and on the mark!!:nerd:


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## eyesack (Jul 19, 2009)

Haha I'm studying PR. Thank you Matt, but don't believe my big words and stuffity stuff like that lol. I could very well be full of BS! lolol! I like knowing and learning how/why stuff works lol and I find that detailed descriptions of said stuff, combined with hands-on experience, is the best way for me to learn lol. I'm naturally a wordy writer which is something I've been working on; to be more concise. However when I get into the "how stuff works and why" stuff, I get a little carried away lol.


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## mdrumm (Nov 12, 2009)

have you done any cigar reviews yet? I would like to read your b.s( I mean work!!) 

LOL


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